The Krazy Kristmas Kaper.

The North Devon Tri Kristmas Kaper has a reputation for being a truly FUN event. Sure you get prizes if you win, but who came where is never the real talking point of the race it's more about who wore what. This year was to be the Kraziest yet.

Look through the photo's from previous events and most of the Fancy Dress costumes will be familiar faces, people from the club or people who've done the race many times before. This year however there were far more costumes and tinsel decked folks than ever before, far outnumbering those who 'raced' properly. There was also just as many women racing as men partly due to the group of ladies from Salisbury Tri who almost fit in perfectly with their green kit. I'm not sure how much of a swim aid their fishnet tights were though.
Thankfully the race's casual midday start time gave 'some' of the overnight frost a chance to thaw. Conditions were still treacherous underfoot though with several very icy patches out on the course. Thankfully though other than the 'brass monkey' temperatures it was a beautiful day out there and everybody made it round in one piece and hopefully enjoyed themselves.
In the mens race local boy Ross MacDonald took time out in Transition to don his Santa beard, jacket and hat but was still unstoppable, posting the 3rd fastest swim and 2nd fastest run on the day to finish the 600m/5k event in 24:12. Rich Brady improved on last years 3rd place finish to finish 2nd in 24:56. Barrie Huxtable finished a fine 3rd place overall in 26:40 and will surely remind Iain of the fact at every swim session they do together from this day on.
The womens race was an extremely close faught battle with Ellie Parker, Eva Murphy and Helen Banbury all finishing within 20seconds of each other. Ellie took 1st place in 28:35, Eva was 2nd in 28:51 and Helen was just 3secs further back in 28:54. There times were all good enough to place them in the top 10 finishers overall and with Ellie and Eva actually racing the Female Youth category (14-16yrs) they are names to look forward to in the future.
Results for the days racing are here and pictures are available here . There will also be a video appearing at some stage, but that depends on how much domestic bliss out Glorious Leader has to dish out first to compensate for todays racing.
Many thanks to Southfork, Saltrock and Andy Buller for race day prizes.
Congratulations to all competitors and thanks for making it a great event. Thanks to all the folks who turned out to help out and marshall in the f-f-f-freezing conditions.
Congratulations to all the race and age group winners and to Carolyne Edwards and Stuart White for their prize winning costume efforts.
Our official race referee did manage to DQ a couple of folks, mostly for running around in sub zero temperatures without a top on, but you'll still find them in the results as it was all done with the spirit of the event.
Finally a huge thank you to Michelle for organising the event - and spending hours cooking those damned mince pies yesterday. Normality is now resumed (almost).